Past issues
Feeds
The Paper in print
Twitter
Facebook
Contact
Email updates Twitter Facebook RSS Feeds
The EMT accused of failing to aid an asthma-stricken pregnant woman as she suffocated at a Downtown cafe has been criminally charged in the woman’s death — 11 months after East Flatbush resident Eutisha Rennix breathed her last.
FDNY paramedic Melisa Jackson surrendered to authorities on Tuesday after prosecutors charged her with official misconduct, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
A source inside District Attorney Charles Hynes’s office said that Jackson would instead be released on her own recognizance.
Rennix, who was eight months pregnant, died last Dec. 9 after succumbing to an asthma attack inside the Au Bon Pain in the Metrotech Center on Jay Street.
Witnesses said that Jackson and fellow paramedic and boyfriend Jason Green were getting coffee at the time, but did nothing to assist Rennix.
An ambulance finally arrived, but it was too late — Rennix had gone too long without oxygen, officials said. Doctors managed to save Rennix’s baby boy, but the newborn lived for just two days.
When news broke of the EMTs alleged inaction, both Jackson and Green were suspended for 30 days. Jackson has been on “administrative assignment” since returning to duty, according to an FDNY spokesman.
Green suffered a worse fate — a few months after Rennix died, he was shot dead during an unreleated altercation outside of a Manhattan nightclub.
Jackson’s arrest was welcomed by Rennix’s family, who found the criminal charges “appropriate,” said attorney Sanford Rubenstiein, who is representing the East Flatbush resident’s relatives in a civil suit against the city and the FDNY.
The family is also suing Long Island College Hospital, which first dispatched an ambulance that didn’t have the equipment needed to save Rennix’s life, family members allege. The hospital has denied the charge.
“I hope this arrest will set an example for emergency service workers throughout the country that if you refuse to supply needed medical help, you will be criminally prosecuted,” Rubenstein said.
©2010 Community Newspaper Group
By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:
You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.
Print this story
Digg this
Del.icio.us